Tag Archives: John

Key Point of Passage: Jesus -the Word and True Light- came from God, and was God; He came into our world to overcome the darkness and make us children of God.

Memory Verse: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1.1).

Questions for Family Discussion:A variety of questions have been provided which are intended for a range of ages; however, a hard passage like John 1 will be mostly suitable for elementary-aged children and above. You may need to further break down and explain these tough concepts to even elementary-aged children. If you have younger children, you may want to use the Christmas Lessons for Early childhood instead. Here is one such lesson.

You do not have to go through all the questions – pick and choose whatever you feel will work best for your particular family.

1) Who or what is the Word (v. 1)? What does it mean to be with God? What does it mean that the Word was God?!

2) What is verse 3 saying? Why does it seem to repeat itself – what is it trying to emphasize? Why is it important to remember that truth?

3) From v. 5 – Have you ever been in a really dark room and then turned on the light all of a sudden? Is darkness able to “overcome” a bright light? What other kind of darkness might John be talking about? What are some “dark” or scary or bad things in our world? What kind of “light” will overcome those things? What kind of light was Jesus? What kind of light can we be?

4) From v. 6-8:
Who is John? What was his job? Was John the special light? If not, who is? What does “bear witness” mean? Can we “bear witness” to that same light? How?

Why did the writer make sure to say “He was not the light” (v. 8)? Do people sometimes forget who or what is the real light (or most important thing) in life? How? At Christmas time, what do some people think is most important? How can we remember what is the true light or most important thing at Christmas?

5) From v. 10 – Why do you think the “world did not know him” ? Even worse, why do you think “his own people did not receive him” ? Why do you think people sometimes don’t receive something very good that they need?

6) From v. 12 – What does it mean to “receive” and “believe” in Jesus? What is the result if we do? What does it mean to be a child of God (see v. 13)?

Family Activity Inspired by John 1:Find a very dark place – maybe a basement or a room late at night with all the curtains closed. Then try to find each other or a special object in the dark without using any light. Then try it without even using any words to communicate with each other! Then when all of your pupils are nice and dilated, turn on bright lights!!!

Then discuss things like: Why are light and words so important to have? What was it like to be in a very dark place and having trouble finding what you were looking for? What was it like to have bright light “overcoming” the darkness all at once? Also see question 3 above.

(Alternately, you could do this activity with one or more people blindfolded to simulate darkness)